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Monday, May 21, 2012

Maggie Goes To Sea

This is a true story of an innocent little stow-away - told in her own words...

My name is Maggie - at least that is what my brothers and sisters call me, for I have never known my parents. I grew up in the warm tropical jungle of Nuku Hiva in a small but cozy lemon-coloured home. My life was idyllic - plenty to eat, no school work, and lots of little friends to play with. At night the gentle breezes would rock us to sleep. Sometimes I felt there must be more to life than eating, playing, and sleeping, but none of my playmates seemed to worry about such things.

One day there was terrific tremor that shook our house from top to bottom. We all snuggled together in our soft squishy bed. It was a long time before things stopped moving. I noticed after this that our home did not rock us to sleep. Maybe something had broken? Life continued - eat, play, sleep.

Later, we felt another tremor and many aftershocks. It was as if our home was moving of it's own accord, like a living creature. The light dimmed and our home tilted at a crazy angle. We adjusted our bed to the new angle and tried to get used to the motion, but many of my brothers and sisters were ill.

This morning, a final tremor shook our home and the roof came right off. A bright light shone in and I saw a huge creature standing over me. In a panic, I climbed along a wall and saying good by to my brothers and sisters, curled myself into a ball and leapt clear.

As I spiralled through the air I heard the creature yell - "Ewwww, a Maggot!" and barely had time to yell back - "No - My name is Maggie" - before I hit the ground. I saw the creature reach down apparently trying to find me, so I moved quickly and hid myself in a crack.

I miss my family and my home and wonder where my next meal will come from, but I am excited by all the possibilities of this new world.

Around the World Single-Handed

Free e-book download. Harry Pidgeon's beautifully written account of the second person to sail around the world alone in an engineless 34 foot sailboat. This e-Book is a based on a carefully edited scan of the first edition including excellent photographs by the author. Click on one of the following links to download: e-pub, Mobi, and PDF. Best read on an e-reader (PDF version not as well formatted), but you can download Calibre to read e-pubs on your computer.